Author Describes Fascist Facebook Cult of Personality

According to tech entrepreneur turned author Antonio Garcia Martinez, Facebook corporate culture resembles that of a fascist organization.

Martinez, who worked in social media at the tech giant, writes in his book Chaos Monkeys the “corporate fascism”at Facebook “was intoxicating.”

“Along with the new iPhone and MacBook laptop sitting in front of us, we received a laptop bag with one thing inside: a blue T-shirt emblazoned with Facebook in the trademark Klavika font. On any given day, half of Facebook’s employees would be wearing theirs, and many even photographed (and posted on Facebook, of course) pictures of their children wearing a Facebook onesie as their social media debut. Brownshirts became Blueshirts, and we were all part of the new social media Sturmabteilung,” he writes in an excerpt posted on Business Insider.

A former employee reported the corporate culture at Facebook is “snobby, cliquey, and, frankly, rude.” Another said the Facebook team “treated me like garbage and I was asked to [do] really inappropriate tasks (i.e., separating the director’s laundry complete with his wife’s dirty undies still attached).”

Although fascist organizations are known for strict, inflexible protocol and regimentation, former employees say Facebook is disorganized and there “is not a truly functional infrastructure.” Team spirit is poor and lacks focus, anonymous posts on Quora claim.

In 2012, The Wire reported on an in-depth look at Facebook that confirms the cult-like nature of the corporation.

“Facebook holds bootcamps to teach engineers to ‘think like Zuck,’ forces people to change projects midstream, and even mandates all-nighters,” an article at Fortune contends. “It is also the canon that Facebook is trying hardest to impose on its more traditional businesses and marketing operations.”

The Wire compares Facebook to another cultist tech company, Apple. It is clear “that the Cult of Zuckerberg operates according to different principles than the Cult of Jobs that the Apple visionary managed to create,” Rebecca Greenfield writes for the website.

A cult of personality is described as “charismatic authority” and is associated with narcissistic leadership. The term is generally used when referring to the leadership style of Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il of North Korea.

Sources

Business Insider

Quora

The Wire